Is Android a recipe for mobile success?-- 12/10/2010

It seems as if Google's Android represents a surefire recipe for success in the crowded mobile marketplace.

Indeed, handset manufacturers who deployed the popular OS represented the majority of the fastest-growing firms amongst the Top 10 smartphone brands in the second quarter.

For example, HTC of Droid fame managed to achieve industry-leading growth, with its smartphone shipments rising by an impressive 63 percent in the second quarter.
Similarly, Samsung Electronics (Galaxy) posted the second strongest performance, with a meteoric 55.6 percent sequential rise.

New Android licensee Sony Ericsson came in fourth in terms of growth with shipments rising by 15.4 percent, while Motorola ranked fifth at an increase of 12.5 percent.

"Every brand that has put effort into designing smart phones using Google's mobile operating system is riding the Android wave," iSuppli senior analyst Tina Teng told TG Daily in an e-mailed statement.

"From the spectacular growth of HTC and Samsung, to the steady advances of Motorola, Android is the secret sauce for smart phone growth for many companies in 2010."

Unsurprisingly, Android's success in the mobile sphere caused Apple to suffer a 4 percent drop in smartphone shipments during the second quarter. 



However, Teng emphasized that Club Cupertino's relatively minor decline didn't represent a "major setback" for the iconic iPhone brand.

"Apple's decline in the second quarter [could also be attributed to the] transition from the iPhone 3G S to the iPhone 4. [In addition], Apple had trouble keeping up with iPhone 4 demand, resulting in the small decline in shipments.

"[So, this] contraction caused Apple's share of smart phone shipments to fall to 13.9 percent in the second quarter, down from 15.7 percent in the first quarter. Nonetheless, the company maintained a firm grip on third place in the global smart phone market," she added.